The present invention relates, in general, to a transport system for cargo containers, in particular for baggage containers.
Transport systems are oftentimes used in airport environment to transport checked bags along a conveyor path and to sort them for transfer to the destination. The baggage is hereby transported in containers and transferred to the destination by retrieving respective information inputted in an administrator. Unloading of the container, i.e. separating the content (baggage) from the container at the destination or transfer to a conveyor leading to the destination can be realized in many different ways.
According to the so-called “dynamic forced emptying process”, the container is emptied by routing it along a rail in the form of a helical path for shifting the container into an angular disposition in which the axis is parallel to the transport direction. The container is held in this angular disposition for a period long enough for the content to slide out of the container. A drawback of this process is the absence of any discrimination as to which of the containers should, in fact, be tilted and which containers should remain undisturbed.
Another option involves a “limited dynamic but selectable emptying process”, in which the container to be unloaded is moved to an unloading station for transfer to an arrangement of restraining elements positioned at a fixed spacing relative to one another. The restraining elements engage the container while the container is advanced. At a particular container position, the restraining elements are pivoted about an axis in parallel relationship to the transport direction to thereby shift the container into an inclined disposition. After emptying the content, the restraining elements are returned to their initial position and transferred to the next following conveying element. This process has the drawback that the containers have to be synchronized with the spacing between the restraining elements. As a result, the throughput is decreased.
Another option involves the “static but selectable emptying process” in which the container to be unloaded is moved to an unloading station, slowed down there to a speed zero (0) and tilted within this station about a fixed rotation axis. The container remains hereby in a same position relative to the tilting element, and the tilting element remains in the tilted position until the content has been removed from the container. After the emptying process, the container is returned to its initial position and exits the unloading station. Also this option results in a slow down of the speed by which the container is transported and thus in a decrease of the throughput.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved transport system to obviate prior art shortcomings.